Yeah well that guy also "saw" TK and Rachel so my bet is that could possibly be another false spoiler...

But to RFF, mds1978!!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

I believe that if the cowboys were truly spotted in the Madrid airport, they must have been en route to the elimination station (in southeast asia).

And I wouldn't place any bets on any team from S14 making it to the F3.

Given from what I understand about where ES was for this season, I doubt a team spotted in Madrid would be headed there. Given what's been speculated about the route for the latter half of this Race, it could be either a flight option others didn't find from point A to point B, or a decoy. I would also speculate that the next leg in India is probably the last elimination for a team headed to ES this time around.

I believe that if the cowboys were truly spotted in the Madrid airport, they must have been en route to the elimination station (in southeast asia).

And I wouldn't place any bets on any team from S14 making it to the F3.

mds1978,

I doubt Madrid to Thailand for several reasons:1. In order to make it past Varanasi, teams go to Vienna, Liechtenstein and then Switzerland. From Vienna, the best flights go direct to Bangkok. From Liechtenstein or Switzerland they go though Zurich.2. And from Madrid, they also go through Zurich. Why would a team go from Zurich to Madrid to get back to Zurich? They wouldn't.

@apskip- I see what you're saying and agree, but I also looked up flight schedules and there is a daily non-stop flight from madrid to bangkok. Given that it's not just two racers traveling alone, they might not have been able to get enough seats on the zurich-bkk flight.

It would be helpful to know the time of day they were allegedly spotted, to see if it's in the ballpark time range for the flight out of madrid.

And also, flying via Madrid isn't so out of the way even if they were leaving from Switzerland. Recently I flew to London and had to go through Germany each way, even though it was completely out of the way.

Hmmm....well I'm no Sherlock Holmes but having just seen this for the first time I have a few thoughts, but mostly questions. Were these people spotted with camera crews in tow? Something must have made them conspicuous other than the obvious.

If so, depending on the date, it doesn't seem like an unreasonable place to be racing since they are in that part of the world supposedly (it's not like the sighting was in africa, canada, middle east, etc). Are the spoilers so solid that there's no room for errors with regard to destinations?

Rather than get caught up in the paralysis by analysis, my first instinct would be to think that if there's any truth to this sighting, then it obviously refers to the cowboys, trotters, and the goths (TK...Kent...really, it's not something a casual fan would necessarily know and you can't fault them for not fact checking the minutiae before tweeting about it). Secondly, if they were eliminated they wouldn't be together...there's at least one day separating each elimination, and once they get cut they don't linger, they go directly to elimination station and linger all they want over there.

For me, what stands out the most is three teams being spotted together. Yeah it's off the map a bit, and yeah the details like names are inaccurate but the big red flags are all right there.

I kinda get depressed just talking about it cause I wish margie and luke were still racing. The thought of the goths still being there after making such colossal blunders just makes me sad.

Glad you're joining in the discussion, mds1987! Here's a fact to keep in mind: the teams did not officially go to Madrid. Yes, the spoilers are that solid because Peach said so. Also, one of the Cowboys allegedly said "TK's right behind us," or something like that. I don't know anything about camera crews.

I was thinking about this particular sighting and it seems like the Cowboys could have been on a decoy run and one of them just said something goofy like this (you know how they are). If it it true what you say about there being a direct flight from Madrid to Bangkok, it could be a possibility.But all of this is pure speculation.

Unless the Cowboys were eliminated on this next leg in India, it is quite unlikely they would have been at Elimination Station. With 11 teams, and three racing to the finish line, TPTB normally send 5 teams to Sequesterville, and use the last three eliminated teams as decoy teams, who travel with production all the way to the final leg. Decoy teams do some tasks, or appear to, in order to muddy up bystanders who may relay to others using the internet as to what they saw. (Old news, here.) I personally share Peach's skepticism about this being a reliable report because of the location and the earlier false reference to TK being on this edition once we knew who the teams actually were.

Well why is so much attention being given to what the cowboy said ("TK is right behind us")...depending on the context, how do we know why it was said or if it has any meaning? I'm sure there were times I've been at the airport when the mcdonalds is about to close, and I probably shouted to whoever I was with "hurry, we have to order NOW or we won't make it!" Or my mom is looking for my dad, who's with me, and yells for him, so I yell back to her "he's right behind me!" Depending on the situation, these quotes are completely meaningless.

What would be weird though is to have someone randomly twitter about seeing cowboys and 7 ft tall basketball players and "hippy" looking people all together while they just so happen to be filming TAR. That seems less of a coincidence to me. That they don't have any alibis around this time or confirmed sightings just further arouses my suspicion.

I just hope that if they were going somewhere together, it's elimination station.

Still bitter about this week's show. I wish the challenge was sponsored by red bull. That way they would have all looked like a bunch of strung out meth addicts after 20 minutes of drinking that stuff. That would have been like amazing race meets requiem for a dream...both with a sad ending.

Well why is so much attention being given to what the cowboy said ("TK is right behind us")...depending on the context, how do we know why it was said or if it has any meaning? I'm sure there were times I've been at the airport when the mcdonalds is about to close, and I probably shouted to whoever I was with "hurry, we have to order NOW or we won't make it!" Or my mom is looking for my dad, who's with me, and yells for him, so I yell back to her "he's right behind me!" Depending on the situation, these quotes are completely meaningless.

What would be weird though is to have someone randomly twitter about seeing cowboys and 7 ft tall basketball players and "hippy" looking people all together while they just so happen to be filming TAR. That seems less of a coincidence to me. That they don't have any alibis around this time or confirmed sightings just further arouses my suspicion. I just hope that if they were going somewhere together, it's elimination station.

I agree with a lot of that. You are mixing sightings though, the "tall black men" were seen in south america.Also livingincm combined a Austria sighting of the trotters in that same post so disregard that.

The rest of it is true, we may need to think outside the box on this one.

Still bitter about this week's show. I wish the challenge was sponsored by red bull. That way they would have all looked like a bunch of strung out meth addicts after 20 minutes of drinking that stuff. That would have been like amazing race meets requiem for a dream...both with a sad ending.

Combining Mallory and Red Bull probably would be a really bad idea.

As for the mystery TK, that could have been a reference to their camera or sound person. I'm sure you need to keep the group together as much as possible, even when they're in an airport where they may not be allowed to film much.

I'm trying to remember the severe weather/labor unrest timelines, and wasn't there some sort of kerfluffle in Madrid Airport about the time of the Cowboys sighting there?

Drinking large amounts of Red Bull at one time is potentially fatal.I suppose it is possible that "TK" could refer to a crew member, but teams still did not go to Madrid officially, unless there is a flight connection there.

When World Race Productions is actually filming the race, the hot thread around here is the "Live Sightings" Thread. A lot of people around here are constantly searching Twitter and Facebook for each and every mention of The Amazing Race. Do we find them all.....probably not, especially this time.

The Amazing Race-Australia was also filming at this time and there were overlaps in the schedule. Also, The Amazing Race-Asia4 was ending the televising of that season. There are about 250 million Indonesians and I swear that everyone of them has an internet capable cell phone and each one watches the show and comments about either the last episode or the next one. We also had about the last 3-4 episodes of TAR17 going on here and we were doing the same thing then, that we are doing now.....looking at preview and promo screencaps.......so things were pretty busy around here about that time.

Somebody here does look and try to check out each and every sighting we come across. We didnt downplay that Cowboy-Ft/BE sighting in Madrid. At the time, you have to realize, we didnt know where the ES was. Some of us sent tweets to that guy for clairification, but he never answered any of us. That is a big red flag for a fake tweeter right there.

There were no direct flights from Madrid to Bangkok on Dec 5 or Dec 6. There was that flight TG948/949 combo on Dec 7. Bkk to MAD and then back to BKK. Part of understanding the spoiling of the race depends on what WRP normally does. They do change things up now and again to make things interesting. It would also be impossible for FT/BE easy to be in both Vienna and Madrid at the same time.

As the_schnauzers has said, the team that is eliminated in the next episode in Varanasi is probably the last team to go to the ES in Thailand. He has pointed out that normally the 4-6th 6-8th place teams, follow along with the race and do duty as decoys. It is also done for logistics and economics. Usually by the time they get to those eliminations, they are half way around the world and it doesnt make much sense to send them backwards to the ES, then turn them around and fly to the end city. The 5th place team really only spends 2-3 days there as it is, then they are off to the end city for the finale.

Finally, besides all the different versions of TAR, either being filmed or televized at that time, there are also lots of "local" or "corporate" mini versions of TAR being run all over the world at any given time. We have to sort through those too.......If you want to see how we do it, then I would encourage you to read the "TAR18 Live Sightings" Thread from beginning to the end.

Can't you guys maybe set aside your work on TAR for one season and go find Osama bin Laden instead? Somehow I have a feeling that if anyone could pull it off it would be you guys!

If I were one of the racers and I couldn't figure out where the clue is telling me to go, I think the first place I'd go to in search of the answer is an internet cafe so I could look up the timeline thread. I think you knew where the sign up sheet at the end of the first leg was before the cowboys ever did!

Can't you guys maybe set aside your work on TAR for one season and go find Osama bin Laden instead? Somehow I have a feeling that if anyone could pull it off it would be you guys!

If I were one of the racers and I couldn't figure out where the clue is telling me to go, I think the first place I'd go to in search of the answer is an internet cafe so I could look up the timeline thread. I think you knew where the sign up sheet at the end of the first leg was before the cowboys ever did!

It's happened....

And one of the nicest compliments we ever got here was from the wife of a Police Detecive who asked if we would come help him with some Cold Cases during our downtime!! This is the MOST amazing team ever!!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

And saying again, there have been a lot of false spoilers the last couple of seasons trying to throw us off.

The so-called Madrid spoiler was I believe, one of those.

We have lots to look ahead to though!!

now...where is my promo?? And one at a time this week please!!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Just a little speculation of mine...could TK mentioned by one of the cowboys refer to Team Kentucky a.k.a. Gallory. Mallory was Miss Kentucky so Gallory could be the one referred by the cowboys but I don't think I ever heard nicknaming by cowboys. Gallory is generally used in RFF but the teams racing might give other nicknames....Well, this is only my speculation..

Long time reader from Madrid...Just wanted to give my 2 cents regarding the Cowboy sighting in Madrid airport - The 6th of December is a big bank holiday here of us (mainly because we also have the 8th and we turn it in to a very long weekend).

Last December the 3rd there was chaos at all Spanish airports because all air controlers when on strike!! Airports were closed form the evening of the 3rd until well into the night of the 4th... chaos contiuned until at least the 7th of December with the military having to take control of the situation!!! It was a crazy time with hundreds of cancellations everyday and no normality until at least the following week.

I just wanted to add this as another reason why the Cowboy sighting seems strange to me... with air control chaos at that level I very much doubt they would have choose to fly through Madrid around those dates!!

Thanks so much for that info! I think that is the kiss of death for that spoiler, so maybe we can finally put it to rest!

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Long time reader from Madrid...Just wanted to give my 2 cents regarding the Cowboy sighting in Madrid airport - The 6th of December is a big bank holiday here of us (mainly because we also have the 8th and we turn it in to a very long weekend).

Last December the 3rd there was chaos at all Spanish airports because all air controlers when on strike!! Airports were closed form the evening of the 3rd until well into the night of the 4th... chaos contiuned until at least the 7th of December with the military having to take control of the situation!!! It was a crazy time with hundreds of cancellations everyday and no normality until at least the following week.

I just wanted to add this as another reason why the Cowboy sighting seems strange to me... with air control chaos at that level I very much doubt they would have choose to fly through Madrid around those dates!!

Here's hoping for a really spotting in Madrid soon

Hi, welcome! Never any doubt in my mind that's.

I actually think TAR will head off to Spain for a leg in Madrid and another in Andalusia/Valencia in TAR 19. So much culture and unused potential in the country.